a) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the molding of microsystem structures with an apparatus which includes a pair of oppositely lying chamber parts of a closable chamber, which serve as carriers for receiving an embossing tool and a moldable material, and of which one chamber part is fixed to the framework and the other is guided adjustably in a frame.
b) Description of the Related Art
In the process for producing microsystem components which has become known under the name LIGA technique (a German acronym standing for lithography with synchrotron radiation, galvanoplating and plastic molding), the molding is a key to mass production. By pressing a molding tool into a layer of thermoplastic or some other material, preferably under a vacuum and at a temperature above the softening temperature of the thermoplastic, three-dimensional structures are produced with structure heights in the range of just a few nanometers to a few hundred micrometers.
DE 40 10 669 C1 and DE 42 22 856 C1, which relate to processes for producing microstructured elements from plastic, describe in detail the process steps of the so-called vacuum embossing process. The structural design of an apparatus suitable for molding on a mass-production scale is not dealt within detail.
Such an apparatus must meet the requirement of having flexible apparatus possibilities. This includes solving those problems which arise because of different heights of the molding tools to be used and also different thicknesses of the molding material and the molding depth (structure depth). This adaptability is additionally made more difficult by the requirement contained in DE 42 22 856 C1 for very accurate parallel guidance of the tool.